The Primal Hunter

Jake didn’t have a lot of close friends growing up, but he did have some. One of them was Patrick or Pat for short. Pat and Jake went to daycare together and even entered the same school. They were in different classes, but they still met up during recess and went to each other’s places after school nearly every day.

They had the same hobbies. If one got a new cool comic book or movie, they just had to watch or read it together. Everything was idyllic and pleasant until one small thing came between them.

Jake had lent Patrick one of his new video games for the weekend, but when Patrick came Monday, he didn’t have it. Jake didn’t chew him out or anything but believed it to be a genuine mistake and asked him just to bring it Tuesday.

Tuesday came around, and still no game. Jake asked again and again. Finally, Patrick broke down and claimed that he had accidentally broken the disc and had lied about it. Jake was furious and told him their friendship was over if he didn’t get him a new copy of the game.

Patrick cried, but Jake was steadfast and ignored it. Until he got home, where he too cried. His parents told him to forgive and forget, but Jake was too damn stubborn even back then.

A week passed, and the two of them hadn’t spoken a single word. Well, Patrick had spoken, but Jake had ignored him.

Two weeks passed, and Jake kept ignoring his oldest friend despite the pleas and apologies. At that point, Jake had already begun to forget about the game as he had moved on to newer and better things, but nevertheless, he refused to forgive.

On the third week, Patrick came up to him and said that he had something for him during recess. But when the break came around, he couldn’t find Patrick anywhere and found out that he had left school early that day.

From then on, Jake completely ignored him. No matter how his former friend tried to explain, Jake didn’t listen for even a second.

Two months later, Patrick changed schools. Jake didn’t care; he had moved on then and had just started getting into archery.

He learned a few months later that the reason Patrick changed schools was because of bullying. And not the ‘tough-it-up-kid’-kind, but the ‘trauma-for-life’-kind. He was beaten, isolated, belittled, and, as Jake learned later, stolen from.

Patrick never lost the game. One of the bullies stole it the day he came to return it. Patrick, being non-confrontational, didn’t want to get Jake involved and just lied. Instead, he tried to fix it himself.

He managed to pool together all of his allowance and money from some odd jobs to buy a new game three weeks after he lost it. He had brought it to school and wanted to give it to Jake that very day. Instead, his bullies emptied his bag, found the game, and decided to play frisbee with the disc. When Patrick stood up to them, he was beaten, and his parents were called and took him home.

And what did Jake do the moment he learned all this? Absolutely nothing. His old friend lived less than a kilometer away from his house, but he didn’t go over. A simple apology, a single “I am sorry,” and perhaps he would have had his friend back. But Jake just continued ignoring him.

Jake never heard from or spoke to Patrick again. He moved away a few years later.

And the most pathetic part?

More than a decade later, Jake received a friend request on social media. It was from Patrick. The message attached was just a simple “hey remember me” kind of message, at first, but in the end, it finished with an apology for never returning the game as promised. It was phrased as a joke… but Jake couldn’t move past it.

It was an olive branch, an opportunity to make things right once more. And what did Jake do? He pressed the red cross on the window’s border, leaving the request pending even when he entered the tutorial.

Jake didn’t know why he remembered Patrick specifically at that very moment when he sat on the ground, hands bloody and heaving for breath.

Maybe it was because the entire situation with his former friend exemplified exactly how pathetic Jake felt. He was a god damn coward, and he had always been.

Jake was a loner. It was hard for him to let people in. People represented a nearly inarticulable way for him to fuck something up.

If he did let someone in, he started to care, and he feared letting them go once more. He would ignore anything that could break the careful balance established - to the level of ignoring his girlfriend’s blatant cheating, to ignoring the obvious fact that she did it with his best friend.

But perhaps the only thing he feared more than letting those close go… was to let them back in once more. It was to confront the broken balance and try to restore it once again. He feared the conversation he would have with Patrick if he let him in once more… so he just avoided that conversation.

Joanna lost her leg due to something Jake did, be it his fault or not, it broke the balance. Every second he was with her

alone when Richard appeared… he pounced on it right away. It was a way for him to escape the consequences - a way for him never

lonely; he feared being truly alone. Jake had wanted to reunite with his friends once more. To see the always handsome and coolheaded Jacob and his butler-guy Bertram, the passionate Casper, the two energetic cousins Dennis and Lina…

fear… an ambush that broke the balance completely. The one he had a crush

ran. Once more, he was ignoring the problem. But he still held on a small sliver of hope. And then the day came where the number of survivors fell from hundreds to only around 50…. and that was the last day he remembered ever seeing the number

dead were bound to be his former colleagues and friends. He had even reached the conclusion that among the dead, Jacob had to be one of them. He hadn’t proven himself

Jake had continued his quest to conquer the tutorial. He had replaced everything with the single goal of killing the King of the Forest and ignored everything else.

It was how Jake dealt with every situation: Pretending like it didn’t exist and either hope it resolves itself or everyone forgets about it. Or the worst option… for no one

William’s words was that it was all true. That a psycho teenager mass-murderer understood him better

straw was a faint feeling in the back of his mind when he saw that number of only two survivors: Relief. He hated himself for it. He hated that he felt like a burden had been lifted from his shoulders. He hated that he liked never having to confront any of his colleagues for the choices he had made

hadn’t known that Patrick was bullied. He never saw it, and he was only a kid. But after their

been the type to back down from a fight. He would often win a fight as he seemed to have a natural talent for beating up others while not getting himself beaten. Which back then was enough for all the school

Jake, he had been safe from the bullying, at

He was willfully ignorant, and even then, felt a sense of relief when he moved away. Because Jake knew he could have helped his

drastically… he

the broken balance. To face the fact that Caroline betrayed him, the fact that many of them were dead, the fact that their relationship was not the same as

thoughts, something changed in the atmosphere. The trees’ rustling leaves stopped, the wind ceased, and Jake sat

simply walked into a picture. He had long white rustled hair and an even longer beard. But most weird was

he headed for

William and the armor both disappeared as the man turned his attention towards Jake. Or more accurately, the one

the scaled man who stood

eyes. “Besides, were you not the cause of this? You told me to leave your

Viper said mockingly. “But the body

as he kept on smiling. “Oh? I cannot possibly see what you would want the dead body of a mortal. Why

the kill belongs to my Chosen. I have more claim on it than you do. Are you truly going to steal what is

the Viper as his eyes sharpened. His smile still there, yet his tone

body, you owe me one. Simple as that,” the Malefic

no simple matter. How about I compensate our young friend over there?” he said, motioning

letting you do that. Either you leave the body

done enough damage already? Has the interference of you and your Chosen not created enough chaos? Why

ask fate? Oh, but before that, leave the body and let your little experiment end here. Or. You. Owe. Me.” the Viper said, the

As if the illusion had been broken, everything started moving once more. The change was

was that?” Jake asked,

Viper said as he walked over to him. “That is actually quite

get it. So who was it, and why take

for eras; it is actually quite creepy.” The Viper

he presumed was a god, and the stopped time had at least served as a

sky. “Out of all the

“Right…”

say that William guy had way more severe

“Right…”